Letter from the Duke of Wellington to the British Foreign Office (1809)

delichon 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Likely apocryphal. It isn't in the massive official "Despatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington" and the exaggerated, humorous style is not characteristic.

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morsch 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Thanks, I read through a few pages and found it a more interesting read than the original link.

E.g. here he's complaining to the undersecretary of state:

https://archive.org/details/dispatchesoffiel10welluoft/page/...

Here (and a few lines on the page before) is a long letter with his advice on how to reconstitute the (allied) government of Spain:

https://archive.org/details/dispatchesoffiel10welluoft/page/...

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gjm11 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Also, the letter is allegedly (1) dated 1812 and (2) signed "Wellington". In 1812 he was still plain old Arthur Wellesley; he wasn't duked[1] until 1814.

[1] I am sure this is not actually the right term. I do not care.

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zb 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

In 1812 he was the Earl of Wellington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_titles_and_honours_of_...

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hn_throw2025 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Ennobled?

	▲	mef an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Belorded?

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cjs_ac 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why would Wellington have to answer to the Foreign Office for the administration of the forces under his command when that was the responsibility of the War Office?

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ggm 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Entertaining if fictive. His comments to his army and his own role in the victory are I hope better attested to.

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BigTTYGothGF 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There's no way that's not a joke written many decades or more later.

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RobotToaster 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Technically from Sir Arthur Wellesley, he wasn't made duke until 1814.

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TacticalCoder 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Tis of no matter your Highness, I have seen their backs before

Don't know whether that's true or not (that the Duke of Wellington said that) but... One year later (1815), he handed the french's arses back to them big, big, big, times at Waterloo.

Basically the battle of Waterloo (a few kilometers away from where I was born) is considered the time when the UK overtook France as the world's number one superpower.

Since then both have only ever been falling in the rankings and it doesn't look like that fall is going to stop anytime soon but that's another topic.

	▲	jemmyw 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> is considered the time when the UK overtook France as the world's number one superpower. But unlikely a result of said battle, rather the instability of politics in France. Us British oft think of Waterloo as a great victory, although the circumstances, participants and objectives were pretty nuanced. Wellington himself rejected congratulations and thought battle to have very high cost.
	▲	B1FF_PSUVM 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> superpower That's an anachronism, from the 19th to mid-20th century there were just "great powers", not perfectly matched but considered to be in the same class. The Ottoman empire falling off the league ("sick old man") was a bit of a shocker.

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jhkrug 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

An AI debunking. https://gemini.google.com/share/3ff808eaa2ef